The commencement address for mid-year graduates at California State University,
Sacramento, was halted Saturday after audience members in the packed house at
Arco Arena drowned out the speech with heckling.

Janis Besler Heaphy, president and publisher of The Sacramento Bee, was
speaking before the largest crowd ever for a CSUS graduation ceremony about the
threats to civil liberties posed by the federal government's investigation into the
Sept. 11 attacks. Her comments were drowned out about five minutes into the
eight-minute speech when a segment of the audience began to stomp and clap in
protest to her words.

University President Don Gerth said he could not provide exact figures for the
number of people attending Saturday's event, but said Arco Arena was packed for
the ceremony, which combined the graduation rites for several schools at the
university. The arena can hold more than 17,000.

"This was a message about civil liberties and our
acceptance of differing points of view in American
society," Heaphy said in an interview after the
commencement. "It's a message that needs to continue
to be heard."

During her speech, the heckling began after Heaphy
voiced concerns about racial profiling, the suspension of
civil rights of suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks, and the
establishment of military tribunals.

Gerth said the graduating students were respectful and
that the interruptions came from family members and
friends in the audience. He said several students came
up to Heaphy afterward to apologize.

Before Heaphy was interrupted, Gerth said, she was
making a point about the potential consequences of the
methods being used to investigate the terrorist attacks.
He said that, in light of the many lives lost in the
attacks, some members of the audience may have
found the message hard to hear.

"The temper of the times is not terribly open to that,"
he said. "Our students have a right to hear our
speaker. I have never seen behavior like this. It is a day
I will never forget. I am not proud of it."

Gerth said he took the microphone and quieted the
audience after the first interruption, but that Heaphy
stopped speaking about three-quarters of the way
through her speech after more loud heckling.

"When the university invited me to speak," Heaphy
said, "I thought about what to say. I decided that the
message should be one that emphasizes the need to
continue to embrace the traditions of liberty that are at
the core of American democracy.

"Nothing that happened today changes my mind for the
need to continue to articulate those values."

Gerth concluded the ceremony by announcing that the
speech will be posted Monday on the university's Web
site. The Bee will publish the address on Monday's opinion page.

Answers

So heapy Janis gets blown off by the working parents who are paying
the TUITION. Should have done a pregrad thing with just captive
mushies. Worse comes to worse certain here there's a paper in Santa
Clara that would go goo goo to get her.